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Wave-, wind-, and tide-driven circulation at a well-mixed ocean inlet

Thesis: Ph. D. in Mechanical and Oceanographic Engineering, Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-104). / The effects of waves, wind, and bathymetry on tidal and subtidal hydrodynamics at unstratified, shallow New River Inlet, NC, are evaluated using field observations and numerical simulations. Tidal flows are ebb-dominated (-1.5 to 0.6 m/s, positive is inland) inside the main (2 to 5 m deep) channel on the (1 to 2 m deep) ebb shoal, owing to inflow and outflow asymmetry at the inlet mouth. Ebb-dominance of the flows is reduced during large waves (> 1 m) owing to breaking-induced onshore momentum flux. Shoaling and breaking of large waves cause depression (setdown, offshore of the ebb shoal) and super-elevation (setup, on the shoal and in the inlet) of the mean water levels, resulting in changes to the cross-shoal pressure gradient, which can weaken onshore flows. At a 90-degree bend 800-m inland of the inlet mouth, centrifugal acceleration owing to curvature drives two-layered cross-channel flows (0.1 to 0.2 m/s) with surface flows going away from and bottom flows going toward the bend. The depth-averaged dynamics are tidally asymmetric. Subtidal cross-channel flows are correlated (r² > 0.5) with cross-channel wind speed, suggesting that winds are enhancing and degrading the local-curvature induced two-layer flow, and driving three-layer flow. / by Anna Wargula. / Ph. D. in Mechanical and Oceanographic Engineering

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/111741
Date January 2017
CreatorsWargula, Anna (Anna Elizabeth)
ContributorsBritt Raubenheimer., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
PublisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Source SetsM.I.T. Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format104 pages, application/pdf
RightsMIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

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